Active Outdoor Ideas

[Rufus]

Hi Everyone

 

I usually use my outdoor area everyday. There is only 2 members of staff so one in and one outside is how we work it. I make sure that I have one adult doing a focus activity and one supporting play.

When the adult is supporting play inside I often find it difficult to think of active outdoor adult led activities. We let the children choose outside too but I often find that if you don't have a focus activity then they can run round and round quite inconstructively.

With the weather getting colder I want to try and plan active outdoor sessions to keep the children warm when outside.

So far the activities that I have done are:

Running to numbers/shapes outside

Building with planks and boxes etc.

Acting out nursery rhymes.

Ball games with targets etc.

skipping and using stilts

Running to and from areas counting how many times

Timed activities with sand timers.

Dance tied into handwriting and gross motor skills.

 

I usually find that PSRN lends itself to physical outdoor work. Have you lovely people got any more ideas to add to my tired collection?

Thanks

[WChurchill]

Hi

 

I made obstacle courses which bikes went round, counted and recorded times. Also races aroung bike track,again cunting, could introduce timer here. Large boxes really fun, usually just hide in them.

 

Your right, PSRN does lend itself to outdoors!

[Guest]

Hopscotch, balance beam, gardening activities such as sowing seeds and digging.

 

Also if you have tarmac they LOVE doing mark marking, writing and drawing on the ground and it washes off with the first shower.

 

You're right about PSRN, things like measuring, e.g. how many steps from X to Y and so on.

[Guest]

How about action songs like 'What's the time Mr Wolf?' or the tamer version, 'What's the colour Mrs Rainbow?' - yes there's PSRN but absolutely loads of PSED - turn-taking etc.....

 

Oh, yes what about Hide and Seek games - also problem-solving.... following an earlier thread on this forum I hid a toy cat up the tree and the children had to work out a way to get it down.... took them all morning and they were amazingly inventive. We saw children working together in a way we'd never seen before. Hmm, I think that ticks the 'sustained shared thinking box'! Must revisit that idea myself!!

Edited September 7, 2009 by Guest

[Guest]

Hi,

 

One really popular activity this week in my class has been a shape treasure hunt. This was a focus actvity with a TA and a small group. We hid a variety of triangles, circles and squares around the outdoor area for them to find and then sort into baskets. They loved it and some of the other children on CI were soon joining in as well. Prior to this we had also taken groups around the wider school grounds looking for the same shapes in our environemnt - its amazing what they found and they were soooo enthusiastic!

 

Last week we used the balance beam, stepping stones and tunnel to make a course tat meant we didn't step on the ground at all.

 

Such fun!

 

Sarahjane

 

 

oooh and we used ribbons and floaty fabric to practise handwriting skills in the wind.

x

Edited September 8, 2009 by Guest

[Guest]

Hi Rufus -

 

There are some lovely ideas here and most of what I had come up with has already been mentioned - all I can add off the top of my head are den - building with anything you have to hand, Simon says, skipping games, going on a bear hunt, .......and are you sure that the running round is aimless? Our children sometimes do quite a bit of it but it's often very involved role play and they really don't want any adults involving themselves thankyou very much! Maybe some props and pieces of multipurpose fabric would reveal what they are up to and let you know whether you need to intervene or not

[Guest]

.....One more thought - if the neighbours don't object - you could get your disco pants and cd player out and let rip! - our neighbours joined in over the fence and they must be 70 if they're a day !